{"id":1412,"date":"2010-08-20T05:57:19","date_gmt":"2010-08-20T05:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2017-10-18T13:44:45","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T11:44:45","slug":"beginner-french-post-etre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/beginner-french-post-etre\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginner French Post: \u00catre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bonjour beginners! In the last, inaugural Beginner\u2019s Post, we explored the verb avoir<\/em><\/strong> (to have). Aujourd\u2019hui <\/em>(today), another crucial French verb:<\/p>\n

\u00catre <\/em><\/strong>: to be.<\/p>\n

Conjugaison <\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Je suis<\/em><\/strong> : I am<\/p>\n

Tu es <\/em><\/strong>: You are (informal)<\/p>\n

Il\/ elle\/ on est <\/em><\/strong>: He\/ she\/ \u201cthey\u201d are*<\/p>\n

Nous sommes <\/em><\/strong>: We are<\/p>\n

Vous \u00eates <\/em><\/strong>: You are (formal)<\/p>\n

Ils\/ elles sont <\/em><\/strong>: They (masculine or mixed genders)\/ they (feminine) are<\/p>\n

* As in, \u201cthey say it will rain today\u201d- the general \u201cthey\u201d<\/p>\n

Pop quiz:<\/strong> Is \u00eatre <\/em><\/strong>important?<\/p>\n

\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013 Oui<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013 Non<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vous \u00eates s\u00fbr? <\/em>Are you sure?<\/p>\n

Quoique soit votre r\u00e9ponse initiale <\/em>(whatever your initial response is), you\u2019d need \u00eatre<\/strong> <\/em>to understand and answer the question. \u00catre <\/em>shows up all the time. It\u2019s the blue jeans of the French language: always handy and impossible to live without once you\u2019ve discovered it.<\/p>\n

What else can you do with \u00eatre<\/em>? (Or, par contre<\/em>, what can\u2019t you do without it?)<\/p>\n

—Se d\u00e9crire <\/em><\/strong>(describe oneself)<\/p>\n

Last time, I used avoir <\/em><\/strong>pour me d\u00e9crire <\/em>(to describe myself): J\u2019ai les cheveux blonds <\/em>(I have blond hair).<\/p>\n

Now, we can use \u00eatre <\/em>for a simpler and more natural sentence: Je suis blonde <\/em>(I am blond).<\/p>\n

Other adjectives you might use to describe yourself:<\/p>\n

Je suis grand(e) \/ petit(e)<\/em>: I am tall \/ short<\/p>\n

–Add \u2018e\u2019 to describe a female person or feminine object. For example, La tour Eiffel est grande<\/em>: The Eiffel Tower is tall.<\/p>\n

Je suis gentil(le) \/ m\u00e9chant(e) <\/em>: I am nice \/ mean<\/p>\n

I have a pretty simple view of people, I guess: Je ne<\/strong> suis pas<\/strong> compliqu\u00e9e <\/em>(I am not complicated).<\/p>\n

To form a negation<\/strong>, put ne <\/em><\/strong>before the conjugated verb, and pas <\/em><\/strong>after it. Par exemple:<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Je ne suis pas grande: <\/em>I am not tall.<\/p>\n

Nous ne sommes pas c\u00e9l\u00e8bres: <\/em>We are not famous.<\/p>\n

Mais attention<\/em>, you can\u2019t write \u201cIl ne est<\/strong> pas gentil.\u201d <\/em>The first \u2018e\u2019 becomes an apostrophe:<\/p>\n

Il n\u2019est pas gentil.<\/em><\/p>\n

Elle n\u2019est pas ma soeur <\/em>(She is not my sister).<\/p>\n

Good for negation? There are more things we can describe with \u00eatre<\/em>: professions,<\/strong> par exemple<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Elle est m\u00e9decin <\/em>: She is a doctor. (Or, Brennan est m\u00e9decin <\/em>: Brennan is a doctor.)<\/p>\n

Mon oncle est ing\u00e9nieur <\/em>: My uncle is an engineer. (Il est ing\u00e9nieur, <\/em>or Robert est ing\u00e9nieur, <\/em>are also correct.)<\/p>\n

Ma meilleure amie est boulang\u00e8re <\/em>: My best friend is a baker (sadly pas vrai<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Notez que <\/em>there is no \u201ca\u201d or \u201can\u201d:<\/strong> Elle est m\u00e9decin, <\/em>not Elle est une <\/strong>m\u00e9decin.<\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One final important use of \u00eatre<\/em><\/strong>: to describe the status quo, or the way things are. Use \u201cil est<\/em>,\u201d it is, where \u201cit\u201d is just general. Par exemple,<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Il est humide <\/em>: It is humid (the weather).<\/p>\n

Il est probable que\u2026 <\/em>: It is probable that\u2026<\/p>\n

Il est n\u00e9cessaire que\u2026 <\/em>: It is necessary that\u2026<\/p>\n

Il est facile de\u2026 <\/em>: It is easy to\u2026<\/p>\n

Il est difficule de\u2026 <\/em>: It is difficult to\u2026<\/p>\n

Il est important\u2026 <\/em>: It is important\u2026<\/p>\n

Again, you will use \u00eatre <\/em>as much as any word, and it\u2019s essential to be comfortable with it\u2014first the conjugation, and then you\u2019ll be ready to deploy it! Allez, pratiquez!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dans les commentaires<\/em><\/strong>, d\u00e9crivez-vous:<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Votre nationalit\u00e9 <\/em>: Your nationality.<\/li>\n
  2. Comment vous \u00eates (grand, petit, couleur de cheveux, etc.). Utilisez un dictionnaire <\/strong>si vous en avez besoin (moi j\u2019adore www.wordreference.com<\/a>).<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. Votre travail (encore le dictionnaire).<\/em><\/li>\n
  4. Votre niveau de fran\u00e7ais <\/em>: Je suis debutant(e), je suis au niveau moyen, je suis fort(e) en fran\u00e7ais, je suis fran\u00e7ais(e)!<\/em><\/li>\n
  5. Votre humeur maintenant <\/em>(your mood now). Par exemple, je suis contente qu\u2019il est Presque le week-end!<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    J\u2019attends de voir vos devoirs dans les commentaires! <\/em><\/strong>I\u2019m waiting to see your homework in the comments! Merci et bonne soir\u00e9e!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

    Bonjour beginners! In the last, inaugural Beginner\u2019s Post, we explored the verb avoir (to have). Aujourd\u2019hui (today), another crucial French verb: \u00catre : to be. Conjugaison : Je suis : I am Tu es : You are (informal) Il\/ elle\/ on est : He\/ she\/ \u201cthey\u201d are* Nous sommes : We are Vous \u00eates…<\/p>\n

    Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":1415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[10208,10329,250,3234,3867,10803],"class_list":["post-1412","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","category-vocabulary","tag-beginner","tag-beginner-post","tag-etre","tag-irregular-verbs","tag-negation","tag-se-decrire"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28070,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions\/28070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}